The Carrick — Hotel in Bisbee

We were looking forward to this refreshed suites hotel and as per the photos, the rooms are interesting, huge and comfortable. We had the next to the smallest room at 959 SF - Room 101. Heres the highs and lows:||Highs:|1. Location was perfect and the old period building is fantastic. Its right in the center of town and provides easy access to the shops and restaurants. And the parking availability is nice but costs extra. However, there is a public parking across the street, but could be hard to find a space on weekends. |2. The variety of rooms is great and most have deck terraces altho they are on the south side and mostly unusable on hot days except in the morning and evenings. Most rooms sleep 4 people and up.. room sizes vary from 950 sf to over 1500 sf. so If you have family to accommodate, you can conceivably do several in one room. The "mid-century' modern take was fun but inconsistent. The window A/C unit work ok but it was a hot nite and they're just a bit too loud - we put the fan on the lowest setting and hit the "energy saver" button in the units to minimize the sound a bit. All units have a full kitchen with coffer maker, all the utensils, and pots/pans needed. |3. Staff is friendly and helpful and always have a smile.|4. The bed is very comfortable.|5.The hotel provides snacks in the main check in lobby and the elevator lobby for free which is nice when you head out to explore or return to relax.|6. Our room had a "mid-Century moderne" them which was fun - but inconsistent. The master bedroom held the theme best, with the living room a close second. But the second bedroom did follow thru with the theme at all,||Lows:|1. Not Handicapped Accessible due to several stairs between the street and the lobby. They are supposedly working on that from what we were told. Many of the rooms have internal steps as well. |2. The general look of the room is good but when you look closer, there is just some annoying and sloppy work. For instance, mismatched paint colors and finishes on the same wall - plat paint in one area and semi-gloss for a patched up area on the same wall. this was noticeable in several areas. How hard is it to keep track of paints and make sure you buy the same color and finish each time? |3. Ceiling can lights that have bulbs that are too large for the can and tend out past the accent ring - looks silly . Also, I the bedroom, the same can ceiling lights had smaller bulbs, but no surrounds, exposing the edge of the can and the gap between that and the ceiling. Not something you can miss or accept if youre trying to do a quality facility. they should be spending a bit extra for LED lights to reduce electricity costs and fit the fixtures better.|4. Theres a working record player, but no records. Is it for visual ambiance only? Or do we need to go into shops and buy some?|5. The bathroom definitely needs work - the sink faucet is visibly old and not cleaned or polished as often as needed (if at all) and things such as door hangers and towel racks dont match the room theme. In our room the tub/shower has a street level window that necessitated the installation of a jerry-rigged cheap ribbed plastic shield to protect the wood wind frame from water damage. That would have been bearable had the caulking along its edges NOT looked like it was done by someone who didnt care in the least how bad it looked. It was almost intentionally sloppy. They have simple tools to help with doing decent caulking but this was about as bad a job as i've ever seen - and I'm in development and construction. The tub edges need new caulk as well but based on the plastic screen example, it's probably better to have the gaps despite the potential water damage down the road. Also, the upper window has a gauze window shade that is held up but by exposed wood screws instead of a proper window covering rod holder. Which is odd since there actually is a rod holder fitting on each side lower down on the old window that was never removed. Attention the detail...

Room 203 -- This not a place for older folks. Stairs everywhere - in the room there are three sets of stairs. 1 set down to the deck, 1 set from kitchen to living/bedroom, 1 set to hallway that leads to the bathroom. We left the lights on at night to avoid tripping on those nightly visits to the bathroom. Everything else in the room was great. At one time when the suite was constructed, it was very good. Since then, due to natural aging and use, the required touch up paint was done by a blind guy (possibly Stevie Wonder?) ---- sloppy, uneven, childish. Kitchen was great. Loved the real coffee maker and coffee. Of course the blind handyman smudged laminate glue on the wall next to the coffee maker. The rooms have a lot of nice art work, one of which we bought via the front desk. The elevator was problematic. Two people cannot enter it before the door slams into you. Appreciated the free parking, but the steps (yes more steps) from the lot to the room entrance were killers. By, the way, the entrance to the rooms is different than the lobby entrance. So, steps from the gravel parking lot to the lobby, check in, then exit the lobby via the door you went in and confront more steps to the rooms entrance, which leads to the problematic elevator which takes you to another set of steps which takes you to the suite of many interior steps. The room's exterior door entrance at the top of the final outside steps has an antagonistic lock which delights in proving a source of exasperation as you try to open it while you are trembling due to a state of exhaustive step climbing. Instead of repairing the lock, a sign was posted which said to keep wiggling and jiggling the key until it opens. Apparently, it is cheaper to use a sign than fix the lock. . Or maybe the painter had not yet graduated fom Lock school But, you know what? This might be the best place in Bisbee. Very clean, good air conditioning, nice beds and furniture. Nice wood laminate floors, friendly management -- BUT the lobby is only open a few hours in...

I want to be careful here, the Gym Club Suites is under new management, and its clear the new owner is motivated and dedicated to his business, but it looks from an outside perspective as if he is overwhelmed by all the remodeling and key control.

First set of keys provided wouldn't open room door, but external building door key worked. Went back down to get a second set of keys to try, and they worked.

Ceiling fan in bedroom only worked backwards (sucking air up) with no way to change its direction. We have stayed here many times before and if you don't have some air blowing on you, you will be laying in bed sweating from the heat during winter time; the building is a little hot. There is no means to control the baseboard heater from what we can see, so even with windows open, the lack of air flow left me with a sleepless night.

After getting tired of just laying in bed, frustrated without sleep, I decided to go start hauling bags down to our vehicle at 6 am, and then found out the external door key to the building that I was given with the second set of room keys didn't work in the lock. My wife was able to get some sleep, and was still asleep, so I was locked outside the building at 38 degrees Fahrenheit for roughly an hour.

No, its not the hotel staffs fault my wife was still asleep, but the key control issues is there fault and it needs to be fixed immediately. Its a painful, tedious job to do it, but it needs to be done before something bad happens.

I just walked around to stay warm until my wife finally woke to see my text messages letting her know to get dressed and take the elevator down to let me back in the building.

Give the new owners a chance, I'm confident they will get their business in proper order in due time. This hotel has one of the best locations in Bisbee for all the things you are here to see, but ensure you stay on top of issues with the manager so that your stay is better...